"At the end of the film, a woman looked at me and and said 'I've come from Vermont to see what you did with my grandfather's book.' I froze. She added: 'I think Scott would have been proud of this film.' It's the best compliment I've received."

Luhrmann added that he read the book whilst on a train in Siberia, "I had a copy of the novel. I read it. That's how everything started," he said.